Nepal President, Prime Minister meet; discuss India visit

Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari today held a meeting with Prime Minister Prachanda ahead of her maiden five-day visit to India from April 17.

Bhandari met with Prachanda at her office in Sheetal Niwas here, during which they discussed the President's visit to India. The details of the meeting, however, were not made public.

This will be Bhandari's first trip to India after assuming office in 2015.

Bhandari, who will be in India at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee, will hold talks with Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders. She will also be visiting Gujarat and Odisha.

The Nepalese leader was scheduled to visit India in May last year but it was cancelled with the Nepal government citing internal developments as the reason for the cancellation.

In Kathmandu, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri yesterday called on Bhandari and discussed her visit as well as other bilateral issues, according to her office.

India's External Affairs Ministry yesterday said the upcoming visit reflects the priority that both India and Nepal attach to further strengthening of their age-old, unique, wide-ranging partnership, underpinned by shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people-to-people connections.

"The upcoming visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries, and will further deepen the cordial and cooperative ties that exist between India and Nepal," it said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)